Hair fastener



March 12, 1946. F. D. REYNOLDS HAIR FASTENER Filed Aug. 14, 1944 Patented Mar. 12, 1946 HAIR FASTENER Frank D. Reynolds, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Gaylord Products, Incorporated, a corporation of Delaware Application August 14, 1944, SerialNo. 549,321

3 Claims.

This invention relates to hair fasteners and more particularly to that form in which a pair of clamping legs normally engage each other and are adapted to be held apart prior to clamping engagement with the hair.

The present invention contemplates the provision of certain improvements in the type of hair fastener disclosed in the patent to S. H. Goldberg et al. No. 1,799,510, issued April 7, 1931, in which fasteners are formed from round wire stock and provided with legs of similar gradually decreasing thickness and increasing width, one of the legs being crimped for improving its hair clamping action. In the use of a hair fastener provided with legs of similar decreasing thickness, it has been found that the crimped leg offers greater resistance to bending than the uncrimped leg. It has further been observed that hair fasteners provided with legs of similar increasing widths cannot readily be opened for use in clamping hair.

It is, thereforaan object of the present invention to provide a hair fastener in which the uncrimped leg is designed to offer a resistance to bending comparable to the resistance offered by the crimped leg.

It is another object of this invention to provide a hair fastener in which the crimped leg is of greater width than the uncrimped leg to facilitate opening same for clamping engagement with hair.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a hair fastener which is free of the usual shoulders formed at the inner ends of the legs and adjacent their connecting loop.

This invention embodies other novel features, details of construction and arrangement of parts which are hereinafter set forth in the specification and claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view showing a hair fastener embodying features of this invention.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of same.

Fig. '3 is a side elevational view illustrating the method employed for opening a hair fastener embodying features of the present invention.

Referring now to the drawing for a better understanding of this invention, the hair fastener illustrated therein is preferably formed of round resilient wire to provide a loop 6, a crimped leg I, and an uncrimped leg 8. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the legs are each formed having a gradually decreasing thickness from the loop 6 toward their free ends, but it will be observed that the un crimped leg 8 is thicker throughout its length than corresponding portions of the crimped leg.

When the legs were formed with corresponding thicknesses throughout their length, it was found that the crimped leg offered greater resistance to bending than the uncrimped leg and that the clamp-ing force exerted by the legs was thereby reduced. By increasing the thickness of the uncrimped leg throughout its length, its resistance to bending, is now comparable to the resistance offered by the crimped leg and a maximum clamping force is thereby provided for engagement with the hair. i

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the legs are formed with gradually increasing widths from the loop end towards their free ends, the crimped leg I being substantially wider than the uncrimped leg 8. It will also be observed that the uncrimped leg extends beyond the end of the crimped leg. This construction facilitates the opening of fasteners, as illustrated in Fig. 3, by employing the following method. The loop 6 and the free end of the uncrimped leg are first engaged between the thumb and finger of one hand, then the crimped leg is engaged between the thumb and finger of the other hand and pulled away from the un crimped leg.

The crimped leg may be formed with one or more crimps 9, and one or'more of the bases of the crimps may be disposed for engagement with the adjacent side of the uncrimped leg. The free served, in Fig. 1, that the legs taper smoothly from the loop and without the formation of shoulders.

While this invention has been shown in but one form it is obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited but is susceptible of various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof or the scope of the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A hair fastener formed of round resilient wire, comprising a pair of flattened flexible opposing legs of gradually decreasing thickness and gradually increasing width, a loop connection for normally urging said legs into contacting engagement throughout the greater portion of their length and for yieldably resisting opening movement of same, one of said legs being formed with crimps throughout the greater portion of its length, said crimped leg being of greater width and shorter length than the other leg to facilitate opening of said hair fastener.

2. A hair fastener formed of round resilient wire, comprising a loop, and a pair of opposing legs normally disposed in clamping engagement, each of said legs having a gradually increasing Width from said loop toward its extremity, one of said legs having a shorter length and a progressively greater width than its opposing leg to facilitate opening of the hair fastener.

3. A hair fastener formed of round resilient Wire comprising a loop, and a pair of opposing legs normall disposed in arcuate clamping engagement, each of said legs having a gradually increasing width from said loop toward its extremity, one of said legs being crimped and of shorter length and progressively greater Width than its opposing leg to facilitate opening of the hair fastener, the uncrimped leg having greater 10 thickness and less resiliency than the crimped leg.

FRANK D. REYNOLDS. 

